TALAVERA, Peru (AP) – Johnny Vega rarely carried his 9-mm pistol when he wasn’t on duty. He wishes he had that day. The narcotics cop was chatting with a friend on a park bench, the Andean sun burning the dawn’s chill off this highlands town nearly 10,000 feet (2,900 meters) …

TOGLIATTI, Russia (AP) – Once intended as a Soviet rival to the capitalist symbol of Detroit, Russia’s auto-making hub of Togliatti is sliding into economic depression. And blue collar workers are taking the brunt of the pain as employers use the threat of joblessness to slash or withhold wages at …

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – Iran and Saudi Arabia’s rivalry has played out in proxy wars across the region, and escalated further after the two severed diplomatic and trade ties last month. Yet in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, popular Iranian restaurants are outselling feverish calls for a boycott and stand …

BAGHDAD (AP) – In Iraq, the death toll from devastating back-to-back market bombings carried out by the Islamic State group the previous day in eastern Baghdad climbed to 73 on Monday, officials said. Several of the critically wounded died overnight while 112 people remain in hospital, two police officials said. …

ROME (AP) – One of Pope Francis’ top advisers acknowledged he had heard that an Australian Catholic school teacher who serially abused students might be involved in “pedophilia activity” in the 1970s, but said he had no idea how rampant clergy abuse was at the time, during an extraordinary public …

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Preliminary results early Saturday morning showed reformist candidates heading for their best showing in more than a decade in Iranian parliamentary elections, according to local media and election officials counting the ballots. Officials have yet to release early results, but reports in the semiofficial Fars and …

BEIRUT (AP) – A U.S. and Russia-brokered cease-fire brought relative calm to parts of Syria for the first time in years on Saturday, but the war against the Islamic State group continued as the extremist group stormed a northern border town in a surprise attack. The Islamic State group, which …

DUBLIN (AP) – A detailed exit poll for Ireland’s election has found that most voters spurned the coalition government of Prime Minister Enda Kenny and the country faces either a hung parliament with no workable majority – or an alliance between the traditional polar opposites of political life. The poll …

TUAL, Indonesia (AP) – Indonesian prosecutors are seeking prison sentences of up to 4 1/2 years for five Thais and three Indonesians accused of human trafficking in connection with slavery in the seafood industry. The suspects were arrested in the remote island village of Benjina last May after the slavery …

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) – It was supposed to be a U.S.-led naval training maneuver off the coast of West Africa when real-life drama intervened, with pirates taking over an oil tanker and turning the exercise into a rescue mission. Navies from the United States, Ghana, Togo and Nigeria tracked the …